Owachomo Natural Bridge, Summer Sunset

Owachomo Bridge at sunset, July 2015.

Owachomo Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument is the grand old lady of the three massive sandstone bridges within the park. 

It's the oldest one because it's also the thinnest at the middle of its span. Only nine feet thick, many wonder when it will collapse, though I wouldn't bet on any time soon. It could be tomorrow, it could be a hundred years from now. Only the Earth knows.

On July Fourth I happened to be at Owachomo at sunset time. Thunderstorms had been dancing around the park all day, so what might happen at any particular hour was anyone's guess. Thunder rumbling, dark clouds. A savvy outdoors person wonders about if they should be in such an exposed place at that time. Balancing the risk against the possible reward.

The sunset cast a shadow of the Bridge on the opposite canyon wall. 

Then at sunset, the clouds opened a crack to the northwest and the warm yellow sunlight poured through from the upper right of the scene, illuminating Owachomo Bridge. Only in the summer is the sun far enough north to light this side of the Bridge. The dark storm clouds behind served to show it off even more nicely.

After the sun had set, I walked back up the trail to the overlook and made a nicely subtle portrait of the bridge in the dusk.

Owachomo Bridge at dusk, below the thunderstorm clouds, from the visitor overlook.

Photo location: Natural Bridges National Monument, San Juan County, Utah.

Prints and photo products are available on my Fine Art America sales website:
http://stephen-krieg.pixels.com/

Copyright © 2015 Stephen J. Krieg

Sipapu Natural Bridge, Summer

Sipapu Natural Bridge, August morning. [Click on image for larger version.]

Down the trail to Sipapu Bridge on a very warm August morning. Almost no shade this early in the day. because the cliffs in this part of White Canyon catch the morning sun full on.

No problem. With sunscreen on my exposed skin and ice water in my daypack, I enjoy a descent of 500 vertical feet from the canyon rim to the bottom. Quickly, in just 0.6 of a mile. You don't have to walk very far forward to have walked down a lot more. Down is forward.

I have my photographic sweet spots on this trail, so familiar to me by now. This is one of them. It's most of the way down, a last look at the western face of the bridge before plunging beneath it. 

On this particular morning, the trademark high desert Utah clear sunny skies predominated. Sun shining from right to left, the far cliffs of Cedar Mesa Sandstone were awash with light, while the span of the immense natural bridge -- sixth largest in the world, second largest outside of China (where the four largest are) -- was in bright shadow. Green riparian vegetation in the bottom of the canyon for a nice color complement.

And a family of three resting nicely in the shade within the composition to give it a bit of scale. 

My hike was just beginning: on to secret locations within the canyon. 

Photo location: Natural Bridges National Monument, San Juan County, Utah. 

Prints and photo products are available on my Fine Art America sales website:
http://stephen-krieg.pixels.com/

© 2015 Stephen J. Krieg

Kachina Natural Bridge, Summer

Kachina Natural Bridge from west buttress.

Kachina Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument in southeast Utah is a massive span of Cedar Mesa Sandstone. The youngest of the three bridges in the park, Kachina Bridge is also the youngest one. That's why it's still so thick; it has a lot more stone to shed through the future millennia than its sisters, Sipapu Bridge and Owachomo Bridge.

On a hot summer day, the shade and breezeway-like air movement underneath the bridge are the perfect respite. The trail down from the Loop Drive parking lot is only 0.7 of a mile, but dropping 400 feet in elevation. The trail offers scant shade until you get to the bottom, underneath the bridge. There you feel like lingering, resting, savoring. And it's never crowded with visitors, either. Most of the time you can have it all to yourself. Take a lunch or snacks, and plenty of water. 

The bridge is so massive that, while underneath it, even an ultra wide angle lens can't take it all in. So for this photograph I took three overlapping images and merged them into a super high resolution panoramic file. 

Photo location: Natural Bridges National Monument, San Juan County, southeast Utah.

If you have a large screen, click on the image below for a much larger version.

Kachina Natural Bridge, larger version (click on image).

Prints and photo products are available on my Fine Art America sales website:
http://stephen-krieg.pixels.com/

© 2015 Stephen J. Krieg. 

Colorado Western Slope Skyway Scenery

High country view from Colorado 145 west of Telluride.

A glorious late spring drive across a portion of the San Juan Skyway in southwest Colorado. The aspen forests have leafed out and so the lower forests are greener than green. Which makes them a nice counterpoint to the higher, bluer peaks in the distance, and the clear blue sky.

Looking south to the Mount Sneffels Wilderness from Hwy. 62, above Ridgway, Colorado.

The verdant green of an aspen and oak forested ridge provides a color and perspective complement.

Later I drove across the western portion of Grand Mesa. While camping there, I saw a cinnamon colored black bear in the forest, which didn't know I was there. Though I would have loved to have gotten a photo.

Looking off Grand Mesa, down toward Cedaredge, Colorado.

Then it was down off the southwest side of Grand Mesa, into the beautiful little town of Cedaredge, then into the larger but still lovely town of Delta.

As always, click on any image for a much larger version.

© 2015 Stephen J. Krieg

Sunset Rainbow At Natural Bridges

Rainbow and Bears Ears Buttes, Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah.

The weather forecast had been only 20 percent chance of showers. All day long we had sunshine and some dark clouds. Visitors arrived telling us they had come through intense rain, even hail, several miles back. We joked that they had been in the 20 percent spot. 

Then, in the evening, we got it. Rain, thunder. So peaceful to listen to the rain when you're inside and don't have to be anywhere right away. Stay dry and watch the land soak it up. 

Afterward, as sunset time was almost upon it, the rainbow appeared. Arcing across the eastern sky, with the blue-black rain clouds for a backdrop. And the Bears Ears Buttes up above us. The rainbow superimposed in front of them. 

© 2015 Stephen J. Krieg

Welcome To Utah...

"Welcome to Utah" sign and tourists, near Monument Valley.

...Land of illicit stickers on state highway signs? 

There was a busload of Asian tourists at the state line, at Monument Valley. World famous Monument Valley. Having driven past this sign oh so many times, I finally noticed all the stickers on it. I guess I was always too focused on the scenery behind it. I would never even consider slapping some sticker on a state highway sign. 

Anyway, I loved watching the visitors having so much fun, taking pictures of each other. They get to visit, I get to live here. 

Photo location: Arizona/Utah state line at Monument Valley, Arizona. 

© 2015 Stephen J. Krieg

Art Of Ancients: Newspaper Rock, Utah

Newspaper Rock, Utah.

Returning to the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park in southeast Utah, it's hard not to stop by Newspaper Rock again on the way in.

I hate the name. To label a spectacular signpost of ancient native petroglyphs (figures pecked into the rock's surface) a "newspaper", as if they were mass published daily editions, is stupid.

The artwork, meanwhile, is world class heritage stuff. And on this day it was a rare rainy day in the canyon country high desert, which meant soft light on N--Rock.

"Newspaper" Rock artwork panorama.

And the rains had the greenery sprouted at the base of the sandstone lens that had been such a prominent place to signify--whatever it was they meant. Because they had no written language. So we don't really know what they meant. Their descendants in the modern pueblo tribes of New Mexico and Arizona know a lot. But not all. Anyway, they keep a lot of it secret.

So I stood and examined, stared, photographed once again. Most of the rock-pecked figures are quite bright, indicating relative newness. The ones with a horse or wheel are really new, since the horse wasn't introduced until the 1600s by the Spanish. Because of that indicator, most of these seem to be of that era. Not that weathered.

A couple more pondering: why so many bare feet? Why not hands instead?

The demon or monster like beings are a whole other story. Space aliens? Dreams or hallucinogenic visions?

Older rock art amid the cracks.

Much less spectacular, and maybe more revealing, are the older figures. Weathered, seemingly lower and off to the side. Toward the cracks. I think the most important stuff's there. Whatever it means.

© 2015 Stephen J. Krieg